A practice that has been known and used for a long time is the establishment of prizes encouraging the sale of a particular product, and in particular in the case of bottled drinks sealed with top crowns the possible prize is marked on the underside of the top base, that is obviously concealed until opened, the bottle-top being a sort of "voucher" that can be cashed in for the relevant prize at preset places and times.
It is also well-known that there is an increasingly widespread tendency to automate the distribution of this kind of drinks, and suitably constructed machines are hence able to automatically dispense a bottle upon the insertion therein of coins for the price of the product.
This automation tendency has in fact also caused the prize-giving system to progress and thus complementary machines also automatically give such prizes, either next to a machine dispensing drinks automatically or when such drinks are purchased by any other means.
With this automation in the prize-giving it is possible, using the top crown as is conventional to be eligible for such prizes, instead of having some top crowns marked with respective prizes, for all top crowns fulfilling certain conditions to take part, in other words, to be identified as pertaining to the promoted product, and the automatic prize-giving machine can distribute such prizes in accordance with a preset program.